oung People, Young Ideas, You're Fired

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Professor Hamblin, the Baron’s chief advisor, often oversaw the hiring of employees in key positions. After a few months of employment as the new personnel director, a recent college graduate began hiring office and staff personnel. The Professor noticed that the new personnel director, a man of 23, began hiring people about the same age as himself.

When the Professor noticed that all of the new employees were approximately 23 years of age, he asked the personnel director why this was so. He replied that we need people with new fresh ideas, and further added that young people have young fresh ideas.

The Professor said that an idea was not related to a person’s age, but their creative thinking ability. The Professor discussed this matter with the Baron and they decided to do something about it.

The personnel director was called into the Baron’s office with the Professor present. The Professor said, “If your notion indicates that young people have new ideas, then since Lady Angela is the youngest person here, she has the best ideas. The Baron is the second youngest, therefore his ideas are not as good as Lady Angela’s, and since I am the oldest, my ideas are the worst of the three of us.

“Therefore, Mr. Personnel Director, here is my new idea. Henceforth, you will no longer be the director of personnel for Lilliland Castle, but transferred to the horse stables. You will be in charge of removing all the horse manure in the stable and placing it in a compost pile in the greenhouse to be used for the flowers.

“Somehow you missed a few important lectures when you were studying for your college degree in personnel administration.”

The former director left the meeting and went to his new assignment in the stables.

The Baron asked the Professor what should they do since they do not have a personnel director. The previous director agreed to come out of retirement to resume the position until a suitable replacement could be found. The former director, who came out of retirement, was 88 years old and said he had some new ideas for the management of Lilliland.